The All American
Bowl
1989
Texas Tech 49
Duke 21
Texas Tech turned to Gray one last time, a strategy that turned
Duke's Blue Devils inside out in the 13th annual All American Bowl. The
unstoppable James Gray capped a star-spangled senior season with a
bowl-record 280 rushing yards and four touchdowns, and Texas Tech's
often underrated defense took a big bite out of Duke's big-play passing
attack Thursday night, enabling the No. 24 Red Raiders to roll to a
49-21 victory against over the 20th-ranked Devils.
A Legion Field crowd of 47,750 and a national television audience
watched Gray, the game's most valuable player, slice up Duke's blitzing
defense for touchdown jaunts of 2, 54, 18 and 32 yards as the Red
Raiders closed out a season with a victory for the first time since
1973, the year Tech defeated Tennessee in the Gator Bowl.
The 49 points were the most ever scored by Tech in a postseason game,
surpassing the 35 the Red Raiders tallied against Auburn in the 1954
Gator Bowl. Gray's rushing yardage was the most ever accumulated in one
game at historic Legion Field and shattered the All-American Bowl record
of 272 yards set in 1978 by Texas A&M's Curtis Dickey against Iowa
State. His 24 points eclipsed the 18 points scored by Norman Jordan of
Vanderbilt against Air Force in the 1982 game.
The triumph was the icing on a sugar-sweet season for Tech, which
finished the year with a 9-3 record and assured of a place in the final
national rankings.
The Raiders, who prepared long and hard for only their second
postseason appearance since 1977, jumped out to a 28-0 lead on Duke
before the Devils knew what hit them. The Devils, Atlantic Coast
Conference co-champions who were in their first bowl game since 1961,
managed to cut that deficit to 28-14 at halftime, but Gray and the
offensive line that helped him ramble for a Southwest Conference leading
1,509 yards during the regular season, put an end to any remaining
suspense in the third quarter.
The Raiders took the second-half kickoff and marched 62 yards in 11
plays, consuming 6:12, to Anthony Lynn's 1 yard touchdown dive that
extended the Tech lead to 35-14. Gray sparked the drive with four
carries for 29 yards.
Tech scored on its next possession as well, gliding 60 yards in seven
plays. Quarterback Jamie Gill did the scoring honors from a yard out,
but it was Gray who made the points possible with a pair of 27-yard
bursts. That made it 42-14.
After the Devils got back one of the second-half scores on Dave Brown's
16-yard TD pass to tight end Dave Colonna, Gray wrapped up the night's
scoring with one of his trademark runs. On fourth-and-2 at the Duke 32,
Gray raced around left, stutter-stepped through several arm tackles and
raced to the end zone, putting the game out of the Devils' reach, 49-21.
"The key to the win was the guys up front," noted quarterback Jamie
Gill, who supplemented the 349-yard rushing effort with 174 yards and
one touchdown through the air. "It was a tremendous win in front of a
national audience."
Tech literally smoked the Blue Devils during the first 23 minutes,
coming up with three of its four turnovers and scoring 28 unanswered
points. Duke snapped out of its stupor in time to score a pair of
second-quarter touchdowns, cutting the Raiders' advantage to 28-14 at
the half.
With junior quarterback Bill Ray at the helm, the Devils opened the game
in impressive fashion, completing three straight passes to advance from
their 18 to the Tech 38. Ray made it four in a row, but hit the wrong
colored jersey. Sophomore cornerback Brian Dubiski stepped in front of
Ray's pass intended for Keith Ewell at the 11-yard line and returned it
20 yards to the 31 to give the Raiders their first break.
Gill and Gray made certain the Raiders cashed in. Gill connected with
split end Travis Price for 36 yards on a third-and-7 call, and Gray
lugged the ball nine times for 41 yards, including the final two steps
for the touchdown on fourth down, during a 69-yard, 11-play drive. The
conversion kick failed, however, as holder Jamie Simmons had trouble
with a low snap. The misfire left Tech up 6-0 with 7 '/2 minutes elapsed
in the first quarter.
Duke was forced to punt its second possession, and Tech took over at its
27. While the Devils crowded the line of scrimmage waiting to ambush
Gray, Gill burned them with torrid third-down passing precision: 19
yards to Lynn on third-and-6,17 yards to Price on third-and-16 and 36
yards to Price for the TD on third-and-7.
Gill also got back the missed extra-point kick when he shuffled an
underhand pass to tight end Bart Talkington in the end zone. The
two-point conversion upped Tech's lead to 14-0 with 1:45 remaining in
the first quarter.
On the ensuing kickoff, Duke was penalized 15 yards for roughing Gill
on the TD pass. The Raiders used the field position to attempt an onside
kick. Elliott's kick took a perfect bounce, and Quinton Rhodes recovered
at the Duke 35. Tech failed to capitalize on the field position,
however, and punted.
In the meantime, the Devils had trouble just hanging on to the ball. The
second of two straight fumbles, this one recovered by Dubiski, led to
Gray's 54-yard jettison through the heart of Duke's defense and a 21-0
lead.
On Tech's next ownership, Gray capped a 55-yard drive on the fourth play
from scrimmage when he scampered 18 yards. Elliott's extra-point kick
upped the score to 28-0. The Devils, who finished their season at 8-4,
rallied behind Brown, Ray's backup, in the second quarter.
Jamie Gill
MVP James Gray
Dykes celebrates bowl title
Texas Tech cartoon
Attendance- 47,750
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
TT- Gray 2 run (Kick failed)
TT- Price 36 pass from Gill (Talkington pass from Gill)
Second Quarter
TT- Gray 54 run (Elliot kick)
TT- Gray 18 run (Elliot kick)
Duke- Zuberer 30 pass from Brown (Gardener kick)
Duke- Colonna 25 pass from Brown (Gardener kick)
Third Quarter
TT- Lynn 1 run (Elliot kick)
TT- Gill 1 run (Elliot kick)
Fourth Quarter
Duke- Colonna 16 pass from Brown (Gardener kick)
TT- Gray 32 run (Elliot kick)
Individual Statistics
Rushing
TT- Gray 33-280, Lynn 13-64, McAfee 5-14, Gill 5-26
Duke- Cuthbert 5-32, Boone 2-24, Ray 3-19
Passing
TT- Gill 13-6-174
Duke- Brown 30-17-268, Ray 11-7-69
Receiving
TT- Price 3-89, Lynn 2-57, Manyweather 1-28
Duke-Hines 6-112, Colonna 5-63, Cuthbert 4-49, Jones 3-46, Zuberer 2-47
